1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a salad spin-drier including a bowl and a sieve-like spin-drier basket mounted therein, which rests with a bearing recess on a bearing cam, a lid on whose lower side a rotary drive plate is rotatably arranged about a vertical axis and which via tabs is engaged with the spin-drier basket, and a drive with which the rotary drive plate may be set into rotation, wherein the lid has an engagement edge which engages into the bowl.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Salad spin-driers are for example known from European Patent Reference EP-0 919 177, and older models with a different type of mounting of the spin-drier basket are for example known from French Patent Reference FR-A-1 012 262 or from Swiss Patent Reference CH-A-353 509.
Salad spin-driers available in the market are known, for example as taught by PCT International Publication WO-03/043477.
Salad spin-driers of the known constructional type have a relatively large volume and accordingly take up a lot of space in the refrigerator. After the salad is relatively freed of clinging water from the previous rinsing procedure in the salad spin-drier, the salad is removed from the spin-drier basket and put into a salad bowl for further preparation. The corresponding salad bowl is relatively large and takes up further space in the kitchen.
It would be apparent to also use the bowl of the salad spin-drier for preparing and serving the salad. With the salad spin-driers which are common on the market this is not realized in a meaningful manner. The bowls are manufactured of transparent plastic so that one may recognize when the shaking procedure may be completed. These transparent plastic bowls however fall far short of aesthetic aspects which one usually places on a salad bowl. Also, these bowls have designs which are widespread and are commonplace today have a central raised bearing cam which is manufactured as one piece with the base of the bowl. This cam is not only aesthetically displeasing, but it really interferes when the salad in the bowl is mixed with the dressing. In particular, the prongs of the salad cutlery may also snag with the bearing cam, wherein in the worst case the bearing cam may be destroyed.
The latter problem is not present if one manufactures a bowl for an apparatus for mixing salads, such as taught by European Patent Reference EP-A-0 439 413 which generally mentions that the bowl may be manufactured on any material, thus of glass and ceramic. In this case, which is of a significantly lesser problem than a quickly rotating salad spin-drier, adaptations to dimensional inaccuracies are required as taught by French Patent Reference FR-A-2 688 131, wherein a solution is shown with which the dimensional inaccuracies are compensated by a bearing shaft which is adjustable in the longitudinal direction.